Hideo Kojima is known for slipping all manner of devious secrets and Easter eggs into his games, but this new Metal Gear Solid V discovery is something else entirely.
A user by the name of Saladin on the MGSForums has actually discovered a level editor hidden away in the game’s code.
While scouring through the code (as we all do at some point in the day), Saladin noticed that a line of code he found was able to alter the game world’s boundaries and memory – an indication of what could be a level editor.
Saladin explained in a detailed post on the forums that it seemed to be a pretty expansive feature, too:
It even changes the game word’s boundaries and memory depending on the current state of the editor mode. If it’s enabled, the Editor mode sets it to high. If it isn’t, it resets it to regular.
The post goes on to highlight several lines of code that reveal a mission editor, tactical action system, light capture route systems, and loads more. Check out Saladin’s original post for a full and extensive rundown on everything he found.
It certainly would have been interesting to see how a level editor would work in the context of an open world game like Metal Gear Solid V, and a mission editor would have been pretty awesome too.
For now, we just have to dream I guess. And wait for some ridiculously smart modder to find a way to actually make it happen somehow.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.